The Government set up a commission of investigation in 2006 to examine how the Church dealt with allegations of sexual abuse against children, over a period of nearly thirty years. And to his credit, the affable but shrewd Archbishop Diarmuid Martin duly handed over all the files he had, without comment or question: 66,583 documents in all.

Now, however, his predecessor wants to prevent the commission from having access to some of the documents on those files, and he’s taking a High Court action to stop them, claiming that the documents are protected by lawyer-client privilege.

Why?

What is the Cardinal so afraid of? Can he not stand over every single action recorded on those files, as the rest of us have to do in our professional lives? It would appear that he doesn’t see the need to bend his princely neck before this commission of lumpenprole upstarts who dare question his authority, but of course, Des is no stranger to hubris, or to arrogance.

Now look. I have to be honest here and say that I do not like Desmond Connell one little bit. As a man, he’s cold, unfeeling and condescending. He’s remote and has no understanding of what it is to be a living human being. But apart from that, he’s probably all right.

Priests of the Dublin diocese systematically raped and abused children for decades and their bosses did nothing to stop them. Rapist-priests were moved from parish to unsuspecting parish, raping children wherever they went, and the Church authorities did absolutely nothing about it.

Complaints by victims were received with frosty condescension or empty platitudes and the rapes went on.

The abused became the ignored.

As the Church authorities asked themselves how they could best protect themselves from these impudent rape victims, the bastards continued abusing children.

Bastards like Father Ivan Payne, who served the last seven years of his ministry under Archbishop Desmond Connell. Among his other crimes Payne sexually abused the sick children in the hospital where he was chaplain.

In 1993, he paid £30,000 to one of his victims, funded by a loan from the diocese, and when RTE revealed this, Archbishop Desmond Connell threatened to sue them, denying that any loan had ever been made. Payne went on to serve a further two years as a priest under Connell.

This pervert, Payne, was also delegated by the Church to deal with couples seeking Church annulments, inquiring into the most intimate details of their married lives. Can you imagine how soiled those people must feel now?

Payne was convicted in 1998 on thirteen sample charges involving nine boys and sentenced to 4½ years in prison. Six months per raped child.

Bastards like Father Thomas Naughton, jailed in 1998 for child sexual abuse. Naughton abused the children of three separate parishes throughout the eighties, and though frequent complaints were made to the Church authorities, they did nothing about the rapist they employed.

Naughton worked in Nigeria and Grenada, where there were no controls on sexually abusing missionaries, and came back to Ireland in 1976. He then worked in a number of Dublin parishes, abusing children everywhere he went. In 1984, a former policeman told Bishop Donal Murray that he was a rampant sexual abuser — a worrying fact in itself. You would have thought that a policeman, of all people, would have approached the civil authorities, but that was Ireland it seems, at that time, not so long ago.

What do you think happened? Did the Bishop remove this pervert from contact with children and call the police? No. He assigned him to a new parish, where the raping pervert was put in charge of altar boys, some of whom he raped. Of course.

His employers, the Dublin diocese, then sent him to a treatment centre of sorts, in England. His counsellors believed he had no understanding that his actions were wrong, which of course makes him a dangerous psychopath, but that didn’t stop the Catholic Church authorities assigning him to a new parish in Dublin, where of course he raped more kids.

Bastards like Father Paul McGennis, who also abused children at the hospital, and elsewhere. When Marie Collins complained about her abuse, the diocese refused to confirm to police that McGennis had admitted carrying out the rapes. Later, Desmond Connell told Marie Collins he wouldn’t cooperate with the police investigation, even though the Catholic bishops had very clear guidelines about reporting sexual abuse to the authorities. In Connell’s view, they were only “guidelines”, and he didn’t have to follow them if, in his infinite arrogance, he didn’t feel like it. The gobshite.

Bastards like Father Noel Reynolds who was abusing children in Glendalough when parents and a fellow priest reported him to the Archbishop. He was immediately moved to the National Rehabilitation Hospital, as Catholic chaplain, but nobody told the hospital he was an active child-rapist, or even that there was a question about him. After he left the hospital chaplaincy, he admitted to abusing 100 children in eight different parishes, and I’m sorry to say the bastard is now dead, when he should be suffering every day at the hands of some psychotic pervert-hating Turkish jailer.

Do you notice anything missing from this?

Of course.

What’s absent is any sense that the Catholic Church authorities thought the police had any sort of role in child rape. These people didn’t think child rape was all that serious a matter. It was more a spiritual aberration than a crime in the view of these demented clerics. These emotionally-retarded celibates who had never in their entire lives taken responsibility for child, wife, or home. These pricks who had never held their own newborn offspring, loved it and knew they would defend it to the death, like a real man. Appalling old fuckers who had never, for even a treasured weekend, had an intimate relationship with another human being, man or woman. These sad old arseholes who had never once in their miserable lives been properly laid or seduced. These angry, authoritarian, frustrated gobshites who wouldn’t understand what it is to be a real man if that understanding walked up and punched them in the face.

That’s the sort of emotionally retarded fool who thought they knew better than the fully-rounded people of this land. Fools like the successive Archbishops of Dublin. Sad, limited old fools like Cardinal Desmond Connell, a distinguished Professor of Philosophy but a man with no knowledge of humanity. How sad.

This is some of the background to Connell’s action in the High Court. He wants the files on these crimes filleted and I’d love to know what he’s afraid of. As well as being a personal tragedy for the victims, it’s a PR disaster for the Catholic church, and for the life of me, I can’t see what Connell hopes to achieve.

No matter what way the High Court decides, Connell will be the ultimate loser, but I can say this: it shows you the way some of these old boys think.

15 Responses to “What Is Desmond Connell Trying To Keep Secret?”

Yes, interesting. I remember being in one of the good ex-bishop’s philosophy classes once. We were receviuing lecture on Socrates and Plato when and a student asked the great man what Socrates was arrested for. The ex-bishop calmly replied “corrupting the youth”, and showed not a hint of concern. How ironic is that?

Anyone, priest or not, who commits acts like these forfeits the right to be considered human in my view. Flay them, roll them in salt and leave them for the crows. As for those that aide and abet them, they are worse. They should know better, they should care only about the kids involved and let the reputation of their institution be damned, if they had any humanity left in them.

I don’t trust any priest around my kids.
That means – no altar serving; no going in to a dark box with them for confession. (Their idea!!)
I don’t trust any priests full stop.
I don’t listen to the bunkum that there are some great priests. I have yet to meet one. They’re hot-housed in superstition and secrecy – can’t be good.
Here’s a solution that wouldn’t be long teaching them manners – stop going to their masses, stop giving them money.
Money is everything to them.
That and power.
Women mean nothing.
Children mean less than nothing to them.

What about the state-sponsored, lifelong, psychological damage caused by teaching that ridiculous, illogical, fantasy religious crap to young children. Never a murmur about their evil fairy stories used to brainwash millions and provoke irrational hatred worldwide. Isn’t it time to confront the role played by these witch doctors in screwing with people’s psyches and subsequently with whole societies? The horseshit they spout, their unnatural lifestyles and their undeserved positions of respect afford them the opportunities they crave to promote hatred of others who are outside their cult and also self-hatred.

I don’t think people were brainwashed. From a psychological stand point I believe the unquestioning obedience and respect that was giving and is given still, to ppl in the clergy has to do with how people are socalized and that starts at home. If kids are to be socalized in a way to just be obedient to authority, including the parents themselves.. (like property in a way), and not allowed to learn how to have moral autonomy for themselves, its just reflected in society.

We give too much credence and respect to people in authority in this country and don’t require more accountability of them for the positions they have been given. (politicans, clergy, gardai, solicitors, judges)

I don’t understand how the church is still in control of schools in this country. How, in Dublin a seperate school had to be created in an emergency to accomodate children who have a different ethnic and religious backround from the ‘norm’ i.e. catholic.
The church have recently taken great steps (for them!) of inclusion and have set aside a certain allocation for non catholic children. One third allocated for non catholic.. wow how fucking great of them.http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0123/schools.html
Church and state should be seperated at this stage already. We’re still very behind in this country.
(the church dont bother putting forward requests for new schools for minority groups/religions and they don’t want to be patrons of these schools)http://www.joanburton.ie/?postid=749

Also, personally I dont understand parents just complaining about their child being abused (to the clergy!! as mentioned with Glendalough ) .. I wouldn’t rest at night if I knew the bastard was still out there and not in jail.. actually I’d probably ending up doing time myself.

The Church are not accustomed, though history, to be taken to task over anything. Through the ages they were a fearsome force to be reckoned with. For example, one from their own ranks called Bruno happened to suggest that the earth was not the centre of everything, and God reigned not over one one little planet, but many, nay, an infinity of worlds. What was done with him, he was burned at the stake.

Your belief in your deity has to be separated from the organisation we all know and love as the Church, which is a business run by men.

Also, it is against natural law to have adult males living celibate lives, especially males with lotsofcash. Sexual needs, if repressed, will ultimately find their way to the surface seeking gratification in whatever form is to hand.

What ultimately shocks me the greatest though is not the actions of these predatory cassock wielding paedophiles, but the willingness of hoards of ordinary Catholic Irish who would defend them, and would prefer if this stuff stayed in the shadows.
For me, that part is the real scary bit.

I’ve been reading lately about this sort of behaviour, which stems way back from centries past and still is current to this present day. God is not asleep, their portion is provided for in the lake of fire. These helpless kids seem to suffer twice, firstly their unfortunate health issues and secondly, by the hands of the twisted minds of those they put thier trust in.

Im going to canonise the most holy prostrate, god bless him, desmond connel, as soon as the lord takes him. I will make him the patron saint of anal itches and irrerevent horns. I will decree THAT ALL CHILDREN will pray to him for forgiveness every time they seduce a priest. The poor priest. A special man, chosen by god, to advise us that self abuse, impure thoughts, being “abnormal”is sinful. I will also have many more conclaves and consistories where we MEN of god can dress in beautiful skirts with silly hats and discuss all the above sins among ourselves. REPENT. REPENT. REPENT YE WHORES OF BABYLON.